Egmont

About

Goethe's Egmont (completed 1788) dramatizes the historical Count Egmont, a Flemish noble executed by the Duke of Alba during the Spanish suppression of the Netherlands Revolt. Beethoven wrote his celebrated Egmont Overture for a Vienna production in 1810, cementing the play's cultural status. Goethe's Egmont is somewhat idealized — more carefree and less politically calculating than the historical figure — but the play's central argument about the cost of freedom and the dignity of resistance gives it enduring power. Swanwick's Victorian translation is reliable if formal.